Digitalization requires the development of new digital infrastructures that can integrate technologies that support more efficient and autonomous modes of operation. TTControl, a joint venture of TTTECH and HYDAC, and TTTECH partner with industry partners in European-wide research projects that focus on digital solutions. One of these projects is aerOS (Autonomous, scalablE, tRustworthy, intelligent European meta-Operating System). aerOS included 27 partner companies and was funded by the EU’s key funding program Horizon Europe. It ran from September 2022 to October 2025.
The project aimed to create a common meta-operating system to simplify and optimize the transition to software-driven components and systems across the edge-cloud continuum. The project partners teamed up and worked on a variety of different industry uses cases in manufacturing, the energy sector, smart farming, port infrastructure, and smart building that all used the operating system infrastructure developed.
“The aerOS infrastructure was deployed in the pilots to enable seamless integration of different technologies through standardized APIs, hardware abstraction, and flexible orchestration of heterogeneous resources. The partners in the pilots provide the relevant technologies, connectivity elements, AI applications, data autonomy, and cybersecurity that are needed to connect to and make use of the infrastructure,” explains Dr. Francesca Flamigni, Senior Innovations Projects & Funding Manager at TTTECH and project coordinator.
aerOS has delivered a virtualized, platform-agnostic meta operating system for the IoT edge–cloud continuum, featuring more than 50 software components and services. The framework enables optimized orchestration, intelligent networking functions, decentralized security and privacy, distributed and explainable AI functions, and a robust data autonomy approach across heterogeneous infrastructure elements. Ultimately, a new open-source product, Eclipse stratOS, has been developed based on aerOS technology, making these advanced edge-cloud solutions more widely accessible.
Agricultural pilot precision farming
TTControl led the aerOS pilot project for smart farming with an industry partner manufacturing land machinery. The premise for the use case is that precision farming offers many options to optimize the use of water, fertilizer, or pesticides. However, these systems require high-performance processing of data from sensors and cameras and the running of AI and ML algorithms to accurately recognize plants, weeds, or pests and make decisions directly on premise i.e. the field. In addition, when it comes to large farms, it is necessary to be able to operate a larger number of vehicles in platooning or other swarm combinations.
In a factory, AI and ML algorithms are often carried out on cloud level, as larger processing power is available, and the results are sent back to machines. However, for real-time operations, industrial applications often made use of edge computing, which takes over the processing of data that is either sensitive or time-critical near the machine on the shopfloor, only sending relevant data for further processing or analysis to the cloud. The same type of edge-cloud continuum can also be applied successfully to smart farming, as shown in the aerOS project and the pilot.
The goal was to efficiently use edge intelligence and high-performance computing for precision farming applications by enhancing:
- Real-time vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity
- Low-latency networking
- AI at the edge: Edge devices process data for AI applications and make decisions based on this data at device level. This decentralized approach reduces latency and supports data privacy.
- Sustainable farming through energy efficiency and CO2 reduction
TTControl provided a high-performance computing platform (HPCP) for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-cloud connectivity for the prototype tractors. The HPCP enables real-time decision-making in the field, as well as real-time data to manage the tractor remotely and monitor the execution of machine’s work process. The use case was deployed and validated at the industry partner’s research facility in Germany.
The main objective of the pilot was to optimize the farming process by demonstrating closed-loop control of swarm vehicles and ensuring fully automated, safe, and secure execution at the edge. TTControl supported this objective by implementing an IoT environment with real-time, high-bandwidth, and low-latency connectivity in temporary networks, based on next-generation electronic building blocks, and providing a safe and secure HPCP platform for executing advanced automation applications.
The industry partner wanted to integrate all required computing resources for its AI models in its pilot demonstrator, a tractor prototype. TTControl’s HPCP was used as the edge node in the tractor providing real-time computing capabilities, while the industry partner provided the fog node on the onsite farm and a cloud node for further processing with higher computing power but also higher latency.
Andreas Locatelli, Senior Product Manager at TTControl, discusses the cooperation in the project: “We’ve come together for the aerOS research project to develop a prototype of a HPCP to be integrated on an experimental tractor. Our HPCP prototype consists of a performance host, which is able to execute AI and machine vision algorithms, as well as a safety host, which implements safeguards for the machine. The tasks that are executed on the performance host are managed by the aerOS infrastructure and can be seamlessly moved between the edge device, the fog node of the farm, as well as the cloud in case the resources at the edge and in the fog should not be enough to sustain the computing demands.”
The pilot presented a full use case in the field where a 5G station was used to transfer data between TTControl’s HPCP in the tractor and the cloud server. Data from satellites, drones, or tractor-mounted cameras delivered the data to create AI-generated maps that help to identify and monitor weeds, pests, as well as the health of crops and soil.
Extensive product portfolio for smart mobile machinery
TTControl provides robust solutions for off-highway vehicles based on 25 years of experience. As a full-service supplier, customers receive highly reliable electronic control systems, human-machine interfaces, as well as hardware and software platforms that enhance the performance and reliability of systems.
It currently includes two computing platforms for mobile machinery in its portfolio that combine high-performance processing with a robust design for demanding environments. They can be used as a basis for advanced automation, connectivity, and safety-critical applications - such as precision farming in the agricultural sector, but also for more autonomous applications e.g., in construction, or for municipal or special vehicles.
Learn more
- Project page: aerOS – Horizon Europe project
- Project page on TTTECH’s website
- aerOS pilot 3: introduction video
- aerOS pilot 3: final project video
- TTControl’s computing platform solutions for mobile machinery
